ShootBoxing (SB) announced two SB army vs. North American MMA fights for their July 28th Korakuen Hall event. Ken’ichi Ogata vs. Sam Stout and Koichi Kikuchi vs. Mark Hominick are two of the fights announced. Goji Ishikawa is also scheduled for the three-fight one-night series.

Luke Thomas at Bloody Elbow previews the top two matches on the upcoming UFC 73 card. Enjoy.

Anderson Silva vs. Nate Marquardt

With a grappler and wrestler the caliber of Nate Marquardt, Silva should avoid going to the ground at all costs. The Brazilian is certainly competent from the ground, but he’s not going to submit Marquardt unless he’s dramatically hurt. Dana White’s insistence that Silva’s “submission” over Travis Lutter is proof that he’s good everywhere is nonsense. Silva’s wrestling is nothing compared to Marquardt’s and while Silva holds a black belt under the Nogueira bros., he doesn’t have the acumen to handle or finish an Abu Dhabi-level grappler.

It sounds cliche to say Silva needs to keep the fight standing, but it’s also true. Whether he can handle Nate in the clinch, or rather, whether Nate will allow himself to be handled inside the clinch is something we’ll only know for sure on Saturday. But what we do know for sure is Nate’s stand-up – as good as it may be – is not on par with Silva’s. Many a foe of Silva’s has thought otherwise and paid for it: Alex Steibling, Rich Franklin, Carlos Newton, and Chris Leben to name a few.

Nate said on the radio show that his plan was to beat him everywhere, including the feet. That could simply be a diversionary tactic to get Silva to relax on the feet, thereby making him vulnerable for the takedown. Nate believes his stand-up is as good as Silva’s, something I find dubious. Nate’s chin is decent, but Joe Doerkson rocked him badly in their fight, something Silva could easily replicate. If Silva hurts Nate early, it will be imperative for him to establish the superiority of his takedown early.

If Nate can keep the pressure of the takedown constant, then he does stand a chance on the feet. The key is to disrupt Silva and make him open for mistakes. It’s not strictly a matter of beating Silva on the ground. If Nate can confuse Silva with effective wrestling and good ring generalship, then Silva losses points on the takedown and has his stand up rythm disrupted. That leaves him open to all sorts of openings and gives Nate a chance to minimize Silva’s strengths while simultaneously going on the offense.

Nate needs to use a diverse arsenal and looking for openings and errors. Silva needs to force Nate to be one-dimensional and pick him apart from there.

Rashad Evans vs. Tito Ortiz

Rashad needs to set the pace early. Period. If he acts passive – and he’s got a tendency to do that – then Tito will run all over him. Allowing Tito to control where the fight takes place on the ground (I mean, specifically, as in one side of the octagon versus another), allowing Tito to set the rhythm, allowing Tito to strike first and put Rashad on the defensive end of the fight will cause Rashad to lose.

Rashad needs to immediately be off first and take the center of the octagon. When Tito controls the fight, he gets the win. Rashad cannot allow Tito to do that. He needs to pressure Tito constantly. He needs to force Tito into desperation shots from the outside. When Tito is forced to work under some one else’s rhythm, his offense is incredibly neutralized.

Tito needs to own the wrestling in this fight to win. He needs to take Rashad down often and with authority. He needs to win in the scrambles and needs to keep Rashad on his back. It’s not that the KO threat from Rashad is so strong that Tito has to keep the fight on the ground. Rather, Tito needs to make a statement about who’s bullying who.

Rashad wins this fight by hurting Tito in the stand up, getting back up when he’s taken down (NO GUARD PLAY), and landing some solid ground and pound of his own. Tito wins how he always wins: on top and with authority.

1. Pawel seems pretty sure that he is going to be fighting in September, though I have to admit that the article that he was in was a little sketchy…it seemed “doctored” or “fake” We’ll see what happens.

2. The Shootbox card is shaping up with the addition of two exciting Canadien strikers. It is hard to imagine that Shootbox has been around as a sport and an organization for over 20 years.

3. Armando Garcia is the new Gerry Millen

4. Sean Sherk has been getting alot of press what from I have seen…much more press then anyone else on that card, including Rashad and Tito. Again, this is just what I have noticed.

I actually think this card has th emakings to be quite the boring/lay ‘n pray/decision-type card…. e.g. Nate over Silva by LnP, Rashad or Tito over the other by LnP, and Sherk over Franca by LnP. Hopefully Silva or Franca can pull something out from the bottom though… Maybe this is why the card isn’t getting as much promotion as UFC 71?

I think he mentioned that he’d be coming in a few pounds heavier due to his training regiment (forget if it was muscle building or conditioning as his reason) when he was on the Jordan Breen show yesterday.

Is there a fighter who would kick more ass at American Gladiators than Sean Sherk? I submit not.

Considering that Sherk is a muscled up midget, probably the usual wash out college football players that were 6′1”, 220, and could run 4.9 40s that competed on the shows, much less, you know, a real heavyweight. He’d be good in the Conquer ring though.